Ways to distingish yourself – #33 Keep promises you make to yourself

Many people ask me if there is one thing that they can learn quickly
that can make a significant impact on their lives. We all know that
there are no shortcuts to success. However, at the risk of “over
simplifying”, let me make a statement

“One
simple thing that you can learn easily and that can make a significant
impact on your lives is – working hard to keep the promises you make to
yourself”

Think about the above statement – many times it’s easier to keep
promises that we make to others than to keep promises that we make to
ourselves. In fact, many of the promises that we make to ourselves is
not known to anybody else. Something like “I will finish reading this
book by the end of the week” is known only to yourself. Weeks pass by
and the book is not complete yet. Nobody knows that you made a promise
to yourself and you feel a bit guilty for not keeping the promise but
you are smart enough to justify why you were not able to keep your
promise. Most often, the justifications for not keeping the promises to yourself are more compelling than the promises themselves.

On a lighter note, you can afford to NOT keep your promises to yourself
because you can’t fire yourself. If you fire yourself where will you
go? 😉

You can fix this – make small promises to yourself and try to keep
them. Keep doing this until it becomes a habit. It should become your
second nature to keep the promises you make for yourself. If this not
working, partner with a friend and share the promises that you make for
yourself with this friend. Ask for his help to hold you accountable for
these promises.

When was the last time you made a compelling promise to yourself and
worked hard to keep it? What if you practiced this for the next thirty
days? Would that make a difference – you bet!